Communications equipment, such as telecommunications switching equipment, is both expensive and necessary for proper communications after a seismic event such as an earthquake. Accordingly, it is important to protect communications equipment from damage during seismic events. In an effort to reduce or prevent such damage, it is increasingly common to require that communications equipment be mounted to strong support structures, ones that allow the equipment to remain functional after a seismic event.
One common seismic support method is to attach the communications equipment directly to a structural concrete floor. However, a large portion of communications equipment is located in buildings having raised floors, such a cellular telephone company central offices. Raised floors are false floors typically having a series of abutting tiles supported from below by a grid of pedestals and crossbars. In essence, the pedestals rest on the structural concrete floor and support the crossbars and tiles. Such raised floors are common in computer and communications environments because they provide space for convenient routing of cables. With raised floors, it is very difficult or impossible to attach the communications equipment directly to the underlying floor. Instead, the communications equipment is attached to the raised floor and only indirectly connected to the structural concrete floor via the pedestals and cross-bars.
The vast majority of raised floors are not seismic rated. When communications equipment is placed on a such a non-rated floor, the weight of the communications equipment may cause the raised floor to collapse during a seismic event, resulting in equipment failure. Therefore, it is desirable for the raised floor directly under the equipment to be strong enough to withstand seismic events. These reinforced area of the floors are referred to as being seismic rated.
Under the prior art, seismic rated supports for raised floors were custom designed for each location, frequently using non-standard materials. As a result, the seismic rated floors were expensive and required a great deal of knowledge to install correctly. In addition, a significant amount of engineering effort was required in order to certify that the resulting raised floor would be seismic rated.
Thus, there exists a need for a seismic rated support for a raised floor that is easy to manufacture and install.